Protest and Witness
by Jonathan Kuttab
Across the country, a multitude of actions have been undertaken every day for the past four months:
300 Mennonites held a sit-in at the US Capital calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 150 of them were arrested for trespassing.
Protesters shut down the San Francisco Bay Bridge calling for an end to genocide in Gaza.
Durham, North Carolina City Council just passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, joining about 70 US cities to do so, including Chicago, Oakland.
A group of citizens held a prayer vigil at the town square of Lancaster, Pa.
A group of protesters “serenaded” Secretary of State Blinken outside his residence, waking him up in the early hours of the morning accusing him of genocide.
Over 100 African American Ministers signed a strongly worded statement demanding an immediate Ceasefire and the release of hostages.
Some have hung giant banners on an overpass over the highway calling for a ceasefire now. End the Genocide in Gaza. Such banners are cropping up all over.
President Biden was interrupted by protestors from Code Pink among other groups, and it is likely he will not be able to make a single election stump between now and November without being heckled by protestors demanding a Ceasefire and chants of “Genocide Joe.”
Brown University students went on hunger strike to highlight the horror of starving Gazans.
Hundreds of Thousands of people are protesting in the streets of the US, joining millions protesting in Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Yemen, Jordan, and tens of other countries throughout the world demanding an end to the war, the lifting of the siege of Gaza, and calling for a free Palestine.
Piles of manure were dumped outside Nancy Pelosi’s house, with a message to cut the cr*p and end her support for Apartheid and Genocide.
The Pilgrimage for Peace from Philadelphia to D.C.
Hundreds gathered at Pennsylvania's State Capitol in Harrisburg presenting 1000s of mock bodies shrouded and marched to governor's mansion calling for justice and ceasefire.
The recent 35-person Presbyterian delegation to Palestine to witness and stand in solidarity.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens have written, emailed, and phoned the offices of their legislative representatives demanding that they take immediate action for a ceasefire and cut off military aid or at least condition its use on concrete actions to protect civilians and provide them with humanitarian aid. This includes, I suspect, all of you reading this article. If you have not done so, please do so immediately.
Despite the above actions and the fact that polls indicate a clear majority of Americans support an immediate ceasefire (81% per the latest poll) and an end, or at least a conditioning, of aid to Israel, this administration just vetoed yet again a Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire. Furthermore, the vast majority of our representatives in Congress are unwilling to support a ceasefire. One wonders, then, why protest in the first place. What will be the likely outcome?
First, we protest because our country is directly implicated and an active participant in this ongoing genocide. It is our money, our weapons, and our government’s diplomatic support that is complicit in every death and all of the destruction and suffering in Gaza today. When the corporate media continues to repeat government talking points and support government policies, and when our representatives fail to do our asking and listen instead to wealthy donors and powerful lobbyists, we need to be creative and find new ways to get their attention and force them to take action. People are willing to take dramatic actions to bring attention to this genocide. This includes not only protests, calls, and letters, but even civil disobedience, a nonviolent disruption of lives and basic services. This may include tax resistance. I hope more and more actions are taken to name and shame those involved in this genocide undertaken without money and in our name.
This is how nonviolence works. We not only express solidarity, but we implicate third party players to create sufficient pressure—economic, political, cultural, and moral—to bring an end to this horror. BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) are not just a slogan, but a toolbox of nonviolent tactics and weapons available to all of us to take action that our governments and institutions are unwilling to take, until such pressure yields the required results. Nonviolence International has an updated list of over 300 tactics that have been used for nonviolent resistance. By choosing nonviolence, we wish to break the vicious cycles that lead to death, destruction, and continued hatred. However, the hope is that such actions will indeed be painful and therefore effective, by exacting a real price to be paid by those unwilling to abide by international law or respect moral and ethical positions.
But, even if our actions are ultimately insufficient for achieving the desired results on the ground and putting an end to this madness, they nevertheless constitute a direct statement, a clear moral witness to our just demands and of speaking truth to power.
Future generations will ask each one of us: What did you do during the Palestinian Genocide? Where were you while Gaza was being systematically flattened? Just as the Church still wrestles with questions of its silence and complicity during the Holocaust of the Jews in Nazi Germany, so too will each of us be asked what we did and failed to do to stop the evil we know is taking place before us as clear as day.
More importantly, for Christians, is the scepter of our Lord who will one day ask us a similar question: What did you do when he was hungry, thirsty, in prison, and in dire need? How will we answer him? Are we failing to provide for him? We cannot claim ignorance as the voice of Lord Jesus proclaims: “Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these my [Palestinian] brethren, you did it to me.”
FOSNA members and regional groups have been involved in planning and leading so many actions resisting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. We urge all of our subscribers to do the same.
Have an action you'd like highlighted? Please DM it to us on social media or email it to chadcollins@fosna.org as we would be happy to share it with subscribers in your area and our social media followers.
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Silence and Inaction at a Time of Genocide is Complicity
We need to escalate global mobilization to stop the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Use this tool to call and write your congressional representatives.